Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-01-07

make him clearly. Swine will eat almost
anything 1t is true.s But so will fowl
The hog, however. Nin show his prefer
clean place to feed if it Is
given an opportunity. The winter quar-
tiers of some hogs sfe an abominable dis
GRACE. They sleepl in filth, they eat in
filth, and if they do mot happen to die
before they are got II to market, the pork
produced under such circumstances can
not be of the best qualits The animal
enjoys clean floor to feed upon and
clean bed to sleep in, and enjoyment al
ways implies thrift. Whenever an ami
NAL enjoys its surroundings it will al
ways do the best it can do.
The food of the fattenipg hog will oon
sist mostly of corn. the great fat-prod ec-
ing food of the country; and if the ami
NAL has been fed up TO the time of be-
ginning the fattening process for devel-
opmeat of bone and muscle, it will usu-
ally stand even a steady and exclusive
diet until 1t is ready for market without
much danger. But if It has not been
thus developed it may break down at any
time.
We must not forget that fattening is q
violence to natural laws. 1t is the crea
ton of something that beyond certain
limit Is not only of no use TO the animal
system, but a detriment to it. Suppose
1t were possible to fatten human being
as We fatten swine, and We should do it.
What would be the result? We should en-
danger the life. We should load all the
organs with something that would not
benefit them, but would interfere with
the full performance of their
functions. The same Is true-though
perhaps to less extent - with
an animal that We make SO excessively
fat as We do the hog. And Low if the
hog is weak to begin with, if its bones
and It's muscles are not developed as ma
ture intended them to be, we simply add
to the imperfect condition of the system,
when We push its development on its
least important side. But while the hog
that has been developed as we have indi-
Gated, may get through on an exclusive
| corn diet, it is not well to risk If. 1t
should not be confined to corn at any time
or under any circumstances. If the hog
gets nothing but corn, it will sooner or
| later be troubled with costiyene.s, with
| all the evils that such state insures. If
fed every day little of the bone and
| muscle-forming foods, such as middlings,
oii liCdi, SlS-s iOS diSosblNS Will
be kept in order, and besides the animal
will be kept growing.
If hogs are kept, as We keep them, I'M
| til the second year, the winter food needs
to be largely of the bone and muscle
forming varieties. They can be kept
growing upon no other kind of food,
Corn will furnish little for bone and
muscle building. In a recent letter from
Kansas, noticing the prevalence of hog
disease, the trouble was attributed by the
writer TO too much corn. He said that
corn was so plenty that the hogs were
fed upon it from plghood to maturity,
and that even the sows with pigs were
permitted to run with the fattening hogs.
Now it is utterly idle to expect swine to
! do well under such treatment. There can
be no aim in such feeding, unless the OBJ
| iect is to kill the hog, and of course that
purpose is not entertained. Until grass
comes the growing hogs should be fed
| carefully upon only that which will make
| them grow. They do not need fat, they
need size, large bone and more fully de-
veloped muscle. They may be fed any
thing that is upon the farm except corn,
but only very small quantity of that.